Is it a roof over your head, or a space that speaks to your soul?
Can individuals and communities make thoughtful choices so that
what we build nurtures our humanity across the life course, respects the natural world,
and still remains within financial reach? Will what we build be a gift to generations that follow? The Legacy Center will show you that the answers can be yes.

Brigitte Shim and Howard Sutcliffe want to reinvent how we live, the way we think about our place
in the landscape. Some have
called their
latest project,
the Integral House (shown here), the house of the century. It's an organic, curvilinear structure – a masterpiece of thoughtful design, bringing the natural and the manmade together in perfect harmony. Now they're bringing their energies to designing the Legacy Center.

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Brigitte received degrees in Environmental Studies and Architecture from the University of Waterloo, Canada. She is a tenured professor at the University of Toronto. She has been a visiting professor at Harvard and lectures around the world. Howard, who was born in Yorkshire, England, also received degrees in Environmental Studies and Architecture from the University of Waterloo. Having worked at many top architectural firms, he enjoys his small studio in which he and Brigitte can work on projects that make a difference.

The expanded Legacy Center building will be part of
Shim-Sutcliffe's ongoing exploration of the relationships between object and ground, building and landscape, humans and nature. Their design process is intense and probing, sharing ideas through drawing, models, and discussion. And we'll be sharing the entire process with you – through books, workshops, and online – to help you rethink how and where you're living. We want to make you part of the process so that the process here expands to your process wherever you are.

"When I go to see a movie," comments Brigitte, "I inevitably sit through the credits and am always surprised by the number of people it takes to make a film. When you design and build a building, you realize that anything that challenges the status quo requires a similarly long list of collaborators. By describing and revealing a process that documents the scheme from initial sketches through to working drawings, we hope to demonstrate that design does not happen magically."

As a multigenerational research and education project, the ideas we share will challenge today's adults as well as help shape the thinking of young people who will one day become the designers, architects, engineers, planners, developers, builders, and environmental stewards of tomorrow.

The fully-developed Legacy Center building will be a North American leader. It brings together art and science, beauty and technology, in a way that respects human needs and the natural environment while remaining financially feasible.

Whether you call it an eco-approach, green building, sustainable design, or regenerative design, it ultimately comes down to good design. One of the key components of green design is thoughtful choices. The word "thoughtful" is used here in both senses of the word: intelligent AND considerate (of community, of the environment, of future generations).

Another component of good design is the creation of spaces that nurture the human spirit while facilitating the functions of everyday living. The Legacy Center emphasizes trans/multi-generational design. Transgenerational design means designing for all abilities across the lifespan – whether you're a teenager with a broken leg or an elder having difficulty walking. Multigenerational design brings together youth, adults, and elders in a mutually-supportive environment that allows for privacy and independence while facilitating connectedness and support as required.

Ultimately, the Legacy Center explores what we term "Legacy Living." What does Legacy Living mean? What does it look like? How can it be created in your corner of the world to bring together past, present, and future in new ways? The process will reveal some of those answers, and the answers will evolve as the Legacy Center fulfills its ongoing role as a real-life research site. At its most fundamental level, Legacy Living is about the timely and the timeless over the typical or the trendy.

The Legacy Center is being designed in harmony with its natural surroundings, as an integral part of a 15-acre arboretum. The educational space "brings in" the surrounding trees and water of the arboretum to create a one-of-a-kind environment for the sharing of ideas and information.

Get involved with the Legacy Project to support the Legacy Center's educational work onsite and online. For updates on the Legacy Center, sign up for our e-newsletter.